Sprung from a timeless dream, Shadowbridge is a world of linked spans arching high above glittering seas. It is a world of parading ghosts, inscrutable gods, and dangerous magic. Most of all, it is a world of stories.

No one knows those stories better than Leodora, a young shadow-puppeteer who travels Shadowbridge collecting the intertwining tales and myths of each place she passes through, then retells them in performances whose genius has begun to attract fame...and less welcome attention.

For Leodora is fleeing a violent past, as are her two companions: her manager, Soter, an elderly drunkard who also served Ledora's father, the legendary puppeteer Bardsham; and Diverus, her musical accompanist, a young man who has been blessed, and perhaps cursed, by the touch of a nameless god.

Now, as the strands of a destiny she did not choose begin to tighten around her, Leodora is about to cross the most perilous bridge of all — the one leading from the past to the future.

Shadowbridge is the first novel in a two-book adventure.

"Orphaned 16-year-old Leodora, a talented puppeteer and storyteller, is forced to hide her identity and gender as she travels the spans and tunnels of the ocean-crossing Shadowbridge in Frost's exciting first of a diptych. Stubborn and god-touched, Leodora feels nearly friendless until she meets a youth with similar gifts. Diverus, an enslaved simpleton, is endowed with intelligence and uncanny musical abilities when an unpredictable deity visits his span. When Diverus plays and Leodora performs, their synergy creates magic and brings them instant fame. Only Leodora's mentor, the perpetually drunken Soter, realizes that their brilliance attracts dangerous chaos energy, and he must protect the young pair while keeping long-held secrets about the deaths of Leodora's parents and the dangers of her talent. Frost (Fitcher's Brides) draws richly detailed human characters and embellishes his multilayered stories with intriguing creatures — benevolent sea dragons, trickster foxes, death-eating snakes and capricious gods — that make this fantasy a sparkling gem of mythic invention and wonder." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"[A] rather stunning new fantasy novel....Frost has a lot of explaining to do, and it's not likely that anyone who reads this compelling and original novel will fail to follow it into the second volume. Frost could be on his way toward a masterpiece." Locus Magazine

"Frost has created a world containing all manner of fantastic story and the promise of a fascinating history as Leodora moves into her destiny and the unknown future." Booklist (Starred Review)

"Meandering stories within stories, with a rich but nearly indecipherable backdrop and no discernable plot: for tenacious readers willing to be tantalized." Kirkus Reviews

"Frost brings elegance and grace to a novel that explores the importance of memory and imagination in the forging of a destiny." Library Journal

"Frost's considerable powers of imagination and description ground the disparate locales and societies of his world through story — those lived, told to and by young Leodora in her journey of self-discovery. Beautifully written and realized." Jeffrey Ford, author of The Empire of Ice Cream

"Frost draws richly detailed human characters and embellishes his multilayered stories with intriguing creatures...that make this fantasy a sparkling gem of mythic invention and wonder." School Library Journal

"One of fantasy's most challenging thinkers, who also knows how to tell a top-notch story." Karen Traviss, New York Times bestselling author of City of Pearl

Gregory Frost has been a finalist for the James Tiptree Award, Nebula Award, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, World Fantasy Award, Hugo Award, and even the International Horror Guild Award. He was the lead-off instructor for Clarion 2007 in its new incarnation at UC San Diego, and is the current Fiction Writing Workshop Director at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA.